Luke Bartelt, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Luke Bartelt, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Neurology within the Movement Disorders division at UT Southwestern Medical Center and an O’Donnell Brain Institute Investigator. He earned his Ph.D. at Duke University in Genetics and Genomics in 2024, working under Dr. Albert La Spada and Dr. Craig Lowe, where he developed a method to isolate Purkinje cell nuclei from the cerebellum. With this method, Luke used single-nucleus RNA-sequencing technologies to discover that a breakdown of the two major subtypes of Purkinje cells (marked by zebrin-II) is a shared mechanism of polyglutamine spinocerebellar ataxias. The Bartelt Lab is continuing to innovate on methodologies for single-cell and spatial sequencing technologies to better understand the epigenetic basis of cerebellar neurodegeration, engineer improved gene therapy vectors, and accelerate the development of medical imaging modalities in the cerebellum.
You!
The Bartelt Lab is currently hiring wet/dry lab technicians, graduate students, and postdocs. If you are interested in joining a new team, use cutting-edge genomic technologies, and push forward research for cerebellar neurodegeneration – reach out to Dr. Bartelt describing what you could bring to the Bartelt Lab.